The airline industry still the cuckoo in the nest
September 10th, 2009First the banks, and now the airline industry, are being bailed out by being given special treatment denied to everyone else, but which everyone else has to pay for. Today the Government’s advisory body on climate change called for radical cuts in aviation industry emissions, but then – more pussy-cat than predator – let the industry off the hook by accepting its offer to reduce the carbon emissions of UK flights to 2005 levels by 2050 even though that means all other sectors – power, cars, industry and households – will have to cut their own emissions by as much as 90% by 2050. In 2005 UK aviation emissions were 37.5 million tonnes. What the industry’s offer artfully conceals is that if the Government succeeds in its commitment to get UK emissions as a whole down by 80% by 2050, the airline industry’s emissions will then be 30% of total UK emissions, and that is absolutely not acceptable.
September 11th, 2009 at 4:15 am
You are right. The pandering of the airlines not only belittles the challenges of climate change and the seemingly illusory notion that a Labour government stands for equality and fairness but compounds Labour’s position as the party which can neither represent the interests of British business as a whole or the British people in our entirety.
I very much enjoy your blog and hope it will stimulate much needed frank debate about the favoritism shown by certain elements of our party and which will undoubtedly reflect poorly on all of us who believe in all those objects which the Labour party is supposed to stand for and now which Labour relegates to second place.